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Facebook has filed for a US$5 billion IPO stock market launch

Mark Zuckerberg looks set to release his social network giant in to the hands (and wallets) of the masses

02 February 2012/11:48GMT

Facebook has officially filed its stock market launch registration for a whopping US$5 billion initial public offering (IPO), trouncing Google’s previous record of a US$1.9 billion IPO in 2004.

In English, this means that the giant social network site is valued at a mind-boggling US$100 billion and its shares will be publicly available for purchase from mid-May.

At least 1000 Facebook employees are expected to become millionaires once the company goes public, although CEO Mak Zuckerberg’s annual salary is said to be dropping from US$500,000 to just US$1, not unlike the late Steve Jobs’ yearly pay cheque.

Helpless Facebook addicts may see more changes geared towards increasing the company’s annual revenue however, as they will soon have a host of shareholders eagerly waiting to lap up increased profits.

Time will tell what changes this latest chapter will hold for Zuckerberg’s social baby, but for now we’ll keep on trying our best to avoid duck face profile pictures while getting used to the new Timeline.